Twenty of their fellow students were absent on Wednesday night when the Newtown High School graduates filed across an outdoor stage in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, receiving diplomas and shaking hands.
More than 11 years have passed since their classmates were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School. On December 14, 2012, the graduates were enrolled in first grade when one of the most horrifying mass shootings in American history occurred—a shooter opened fire on their school. Six staff personnel and twenty pupils, aged six and seven, were shot and killed.
The class accessorized their blue and white graduation robes with green ribbons bearing the phrases “We choose love” and “forever in our hearts.” On the school’s football field, they sat on folding chairs and watched as their principal read out the names of the twenty prospective graduates.
Reading the names took nearly two minutes.
About sixty survivors showed up for a private ceremony conducted at Newtown High School on Wednesday night. Students who were graduating discussed the range of emotions they felt at this moment.
The youngest survivor was six. Emma Ehrens said she had to watch all her friends and teachers get killed, and she had to run for her life at six years old.
Several of the survivors met Vice-President Kamala Harris at the White House last week, and several have volunteered for gun control organizations.
A 20-year-old kid with a handgun and two rifles carried out the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary. Just as the cops arrived, he shot himself in the head.
Barack Obama, the US president at the time, referred to it as the single darkest day of his presidency.
The worst school shooting in US history occurred at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
There have been over 4,200 mass shootings since the incident, many of which have taken place in schools.
